Monday was more productive. At Tuzigoot National Monument's visitor center we learned about the early inhabitants of the area. Unlike other recently toured ruins the people at Tuzigoot settled in a hospitable environment, with water and plentiful food. They also had access to a much needed nutritional element and highly esteemed religious instrument by mining salt from the mountains.
They traded their salt for exotic items like Macaws. Their resources explain why people inhabited this area much longer than most Ancestral Publeoans sites, but they too eventually left for unknown reasons.
For the rest of the day we toured Sedona. We visited a church built on a cliff, saw two coyotes streak across a trail, seeming to (but hopefully not) be chasing a hiker that had just started down the same trail, and lucked upon the most beautiful sunset we have ever seen, having turned down a side street at random, to park and discuss plans, where we noticed a collection of locals watching the sun start to fade, only after a few minutes they left. We too thought the sky was done with its show. Isaiah was even taking pictures of the hills in the afterglow when I told him to turn around. The sky seemed on fire. It was spectacular.
Rounding out the evening we visited an outdoor shopping plaza which was hosting the Festival of the Trees. Local businesses had decorated Christmas trees in different themes to raise money for charity. With trees at $500 a pop it appears the charity will be fully funded this year.
Tuzigoot
Fiesta Tree at the Festival of Trees
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